Thinking Outside the Box

As humans we are born with the ability to use logic and reason to get through life. What is surprising is that most do not use it as often and have settled with what little they do know. Many philosophers and writers have created works that touch upon this, encouraging readers to seek knowledge. In "The Cave" Plato uses an allegory to talk about the ignorance of the people in politics and how they should seek enlightenment. In "No Exit" Sartre creates a hell for people that are blinded by their own perceptions of hell that they do not believe they are there. Through these works, they explore the human psyche and how people cling onto ideas that are the most "comfortable" rather than break free from shackles and into a brightly lit world as does one of the prisoners in "The Cave". Sartre, on the other hand, focuses on the fact that people have a hard time letting go of their perceptions and seeing things for what they truly are, at the beginning of the play Garcin expects hell to have torture chambers but comes to find hell is seeing parts of you that you do not accept. Both touch upon being open-minded about what is out in the world and searching all aspects of something rather than accepting what you see or hear before hand.